This night, I attended a concert that my harpsichord instructor Elaine Thornburgh gave, which is one of those required faculty concerts that each instructor needs to fulfill (for lack of better term) here at our school. Elaine is an amazing harpsichordist, a great teacher, and above all, a wonderful human being. Originally a somewhat impulsive decision to start taking harpsichord lessons, I have stuck with the instrument after close to 6 years. I really have her to thank.

Anyways, the concert featured an all-Bach counterpoint program. It's probably not the usual concert that most people would attend on a regular basis. However, I didn't realize that Elaine practically ate counterpoint for breakfast in her earlier days, going as far as wanting to learn "The Art of the Fugue" as her first piece in college. Elaine's grasp of the different voices in a fugue was as usual, immaculate. She articulates the lines so well but so subtle that the liveliness in her playing diffuses through naturally. Elaine has been through a hand injury in these recent years, and her playing has occasionally suffered. I can but imagine how amazing she must have been in her heyday. Undoubtedly, her musicality is one of her greatest strengths, and something I think is most valuable during our lessons together.

I'm familiar with some, but not all of these pieces. Either way, hearing Elaine play them has shed a lot of new light on the music. Since recording was not allowed, I'm attaching a youtube video of her playing the Aria from the famous Goldberg Variations. This happened when she was trying out a newly finished harpsichord.